THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

I've been a huge David Bowie fan ever since my early teens, back in the late '90s, where I had a constant access to pretty much all of his '70s records. Having said that, it still took me a while to get around to experiencing The Man Who Sold The World, an album that I heard for the first time somewhere around 2003.

I remember vividly that Hunky Dory was my first complete David Bowie experience and I've pretty much went through all of his albums from there on, leaving The Man Who Sold The World far behind. This was of course completely unfair on my part since this release has some of his best material that he has ever recorded. The downside is that this great material is mixed together with a few lesser tunes but the final result still manages to be great in the end.

The material featured on The Man Who Sold The World never really feels in balance like it does on Bowie's next few records and instead jumps sporadically all over the place. There are a few excellent numbers like the album opening 8-minute track The Width Of A Circle, forgettable tunes like Black Country Rock and She Shook Me Cold, but most importantly, the masterpieces like All The Madmen, Saviour Machine and the infamous title track! I think that the explanation behind such a weird mix of compositions has to do with Bowie's uncertainty towards the direction he wanted to take his music and this eventually resulted in him giving Mick Ronson much more room than what he usually gets. The result is a much heavier album that fans of Ziggy Stardust might be accustomed to, but I personally love it!

The Man Who Sold The World is a very unique piece of David Bowie history that certainly deserves a place in any music collection, even though I wouldn't recommended it as an introduction album to Bowie, since this release sounds a bit different from what we've come to expect from him later on in his career.

***** star songs: All The Madmen (5:39) After All (3:52) Saviour Machine (4:26) The Man Who Sold The World (3:57)

**** star songs: The Width Of A Circle (8:06) The Supermen (3:40)

*** star songs: Black Country Rock (3:34) Running Gun Blues (3:12) She Shook Me Cold (4:15)